Researchers in the Netherlands have trained bees, which have an unusually keen sense of smell, to identify samples infected with COVID-19, a finding they said could cut waiting times for test results to just seconds.
Using the Pavlovian training methodology, researchers gave the bees sugary water as a reward after showing them samples infected with COVID-19. The bees would get no reward after being shown a non-infected sample.
The bees are put in harnesses much like a horse at a race track. When presented with a COVID positive sample the bees would extend their tongues to receive a reward. The extending of the bees’ straw-like tongues to drink is confirmation of a positive coronavirus test result, according to the researchers.
It can take hours or days to get a COVID-19 test result, but the response from the bees is immediate. The method is also cheap, potentially making it useful for countries where tests are scarce, researchers said. The technique of “insect sniffing” was effectively tested by the U.S. Dept. of Defense to detect explosives and toxins in the 1990s. The notion of harnessing bees to have them sniff COVID samples all day could be inhumane as well. If you were to give me a sip of Mountain Dew every time I sniffed a COVID sample I would be a happy camper.